Thailand practised largest tsunami evacuation drill

Thailand staged the first full-scale test of its tsunami warning system thursday, with rescuers on speedboats plucking tourists out of the sea and sirens blaring on sun-drenched beaches.
About 5000 local residents and tourists joined the drill, conducted in Ranong, Phang Nga, Phuket, Krabi, Satun, and Trang provinces.
Representatives from international organisations, ambassadors, consuls, and tourism industry representant were also on hand to observe the one-hour drill, said a local journalist.
The drill started with an alarm, then announcements in Thai, Chinese, English, French, Italian German, and Japanese that there was an earthquake in the sea and a tsunami was possible, so people should evacuate to high ground.
Participants followed tsunami evacuation routes from the beach, including people who were acting injured and needed help to move.
Disaster center chairman Smith Dharmasaroja told journalist : “The drill today is to give confidence to tourists about their safety in southern provinces. All 79 alarm towers functioned well, but more of them are needed. In a few months we will have between 100 and 150. We will try to do this twice a year”.
Then he declared: “we was not so satisfied with a 20 minute gap between the first report of an undersea earthquake and signals sent to 79 warning towers in the region. It should be 10 minutes. We are a bit slow, so we have to improve by buying better software and computers to analyse after receiving the first report”.
Later he announced on the TV: “ The international experts who observed the drills expressed their confidence and satisfaction. Some of them want to use Thai warning system structure as a model for other countries”.
The December 2004 seaquake devastated some coastal areas of Thai provinces of Satun, Phuket, Koh Phi Phi, Krabi, Trang, and Phang Nga, in december 2004 that killed more than 8,000 in the country.